'Fenwick Treasure': Hoard of Roman jewellery buried to save it from Boudicca goes on display in Colchester

It was a haul of Roman “bling” hurriedly hidden in the ground by a wealthy woman, terrified of warrior queen Boudicca’s advance on Colchester.

The stash of her most valuable possessions was described as one of the finest collections of Roman jewellery in Britain when it was unearthed by archaeologists in a box under a department store almost 2,000 years later.

And now the public have the chance to see the “Fenwick Treasure” – named after the shop it was found beneath and said to be of national importance – for themselves after it went on display at Colchester Castle.

Dating from the Boudican Uprising, the hoard consists of gold and silver jewellery – two pairs of earrings, five rings, two gold bracelets, two silver bracelets and a silver armlet. It also has 26 coins.

It was found during excavations ahead of development work at the Williams and Griffin Fenwick store on the High Street of the Essex town in September 2014.

The box was discovered under what was the floor of a house said to have been destroyed by fire during the attack on Colchester by Queen Boudica and her warriors in AD60.

It was uncovered by Colchester Archaeological Trust and now the treasure has been donated by the Fenwick Group to Colchester Council for display.

Hugo Fenwick, Fenwick Group trading director, said: "There was always a very real possibility of unearthing a significant find in the centre of Colchester, with its antiquity and stature as Britain’s oldest recorded town.”

The owner of the jewellery is unknown, but it is believed that might have been killed in a “sacred grove”, which was a fate that befell wealthy Roman women captured by the Iceni army.

Dr Philip Crummy, director of the Colchester Archaeological Trust previously described the discovery as of “national importance and one of the finest ever uncovered in Britain”.

He added: “We had almost finished our six-month study of the site when we came upon a small tangled ball of metal that turned out to be jewellery that had lain there undisturbed since 61AD.”

Colchester castle in Essex Credit:
Alamy

Boudicca was Queen of the Iceni people, a British tribe that lived in what is today Norfolk and parts of Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.

The Boudiccan Revolt saw British tribes unsuccessfully try to defeat the Roman army.